Placing and retrieving golf balls and tees by wheelchair bound or other physically challenged golfers can be a problem. Quite simply, it is difficult, and in some cases impossible, for an individual seated in a wheelchair to set the tee, tee-up the ball on the tee, retrieve the tee after hitting the ball down the fairway and retrieve the golf ball itself from the ground or from a cup.
My U.S. Pat. No. 6,348,017, issued Feb. 19, 2002, discloses apparatus for placing and retrieving golf balls and tees including a support block forming a recess to receive a tee top or head. Attached to converging surfaces of the support block are a tee impact plate used to pound a tee into the ground and a golf ball retainer including two arms having spaced ends and defining a recess for holding and carrying a golf ball. In addition, the support block supports a tubular-shaped retainer having an outwardly flared flange at one end thereof, the pick-up member being used to pick up tees and the flange also serving to retain the golf ball in position between the arms of the golf ball retainer.
Other arrangements for placing and retrieving golf balls, tees and the like are known and the following patents disclose arrangements of this type that are believed to be representative of the state of the art as well: U.S. Pat. No. 2,623,769, issued December, 1952, U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,604, issued February, 1982, U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,139, issued April, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,432, issued July, 1996 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,635, issued July, 2001.